Heather MacKinnon's Posts - DealerELITE.net2024-03-28T18:30:22ZHeather MacKinnonhttps://www.dealerelite.net/profile/HeatherMacKinnonhttps://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/7875171664?profile=RESIZE_48X48&width=48&height=48&crop=1%3A1https://www.dealerelite.net/profiles/blog/feed?user=3foto44fewlkt&xn_auth=noI Went on a Blind Date Yesterday. Their Name was…?tag:www.dealerelite.net,2020-09-18:5283893:BlogPost:13532482020-09-18T14:26:48.000ZHeather MacKinnonhttps://www.dealerelite.net/profile/HeatherMacKinnon
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/7940991861?profile=original" rel="noopener" target="_blank"><img class="align-right" src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/7940991861?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="380"></img></a> Many people over time have gone on blind dates. Sometimes those dates were set-up by friends and scheduled for one person to meet the other with the two having no knowledge of each other. Sometimes the one being set-up by their friends has some information about who they will be meeting and sometimes both parties have some prior knowledge of each other. The…</p>
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/7940991861?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/7940991861?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="380" class="align-right"/></a>Many people over time have gone on blind dates. Sometimes those dates were set-up by friends and scheduled for one person to meet the other with the two having no knowledge of each other. Sometimes the one being set-up by their friends has some information about who they will be meeting and sometimes both parties have some prior knowledge of each other. The problem is that sometimes one (or both) party ends up disappointed. </p>
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<p><strong>“I had a blind date. I waited</strong><strong> </strong><strong>two hours on the corner. A girl walked by. I said, "Are you Louise?" She said, "Are you Rodney?" I said, "Yeah." She said, "I'm not Louise."</strong></p>
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<p>That quote by the late comedian Rodney Dangerfield couldn’t ring truer in the world of Internet leads. The consumer will absolutely know much more about the dealership while the dealership has little to no knowledge of the consumer. My bet is that had Louise had a great first impression of Rodney, she would have given him a chance. Just like Internet leads, both Louise (the consumer) and Rodney (the dealer), showed up to the “date.” Louise, however, didn’t like what she saw so she proceeded to deny who she was. How many Internet leads come in and never respond? Perhaps a similar situation is happening. </p>
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<p>Internet leads transcend blind dates. In current times, given that a consumer will visit as many as 28 touchpoints before contacting a dealer, the consumer could easily find themselves on 3 or more “blind dates” at the same time with multiple dealerships trying to woo that consumer "date" and win that business (so to speak.)</p>
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<p>Internet leads, however, are more reminiscent to a speed dating session than a blind date. If you’re unfamiliar with speed dating, this is where many single people are in a room, bar, or other social venue and have a limited amount of time with each person (usually about 2 minutes or less) to learn about them. In this short period of time, judgments are made about each person. Am I interested? Do I want to progress in spending more time with this person? Internet leads are the exact… same… thing. Dealers have a minimal amount of time to get a consumer interested in them whilst other dealers are waiting patiently for their turn. </p>
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<p>In my <a href="https://quotible.com/first-impressions-are-not-just-important-they-are-vital-to-sales/">last blog</a>, I explained the importance of first impressions. It’s not just first impressions, however, that piques someone's interest. It’s also how you engage with that person that matters. </p>
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<p>And herein lies what’s called the “<a href="https://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/10.1162/REST_a_00416">Contrast Effect</a>.” </p>
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<p>In the Fall of 2012, researchers Bhargava (Carnegie Mellon University) and Fisman (Columbia University published a research paper in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Journal in which psychologists documented sequential evaluations of subjects when exposed to multiple variables across social domains in the context of speed dating. What they found through their research was that decisions are not only made quickly but also affected the subsequent decision. </p>
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<p><strong>“The more positive (excited, interested, or happy) participants felt after one interaction partner, the less attracted they were toward a new interaction partner…”</strong></p>
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<p>Think about that for a second. If you were in a speed dating scenario, wouldn’t you want to be that first positive interaction? According to scientisearch, if you can pull that off, every subsequent interaction is less attractive to you. Brains are funny things. Even today, medicine doesn’t know exactly how they work. In this case, however, studies show that being the first positive interaction with fic resomeone decreases the likelihood that every interaction AFTER YOU is less attractive. </p>
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<p>The moral of this story is that, in order to increase your dealership’s chances of success and get customers to engage and choose your dealership over another is that not only do you have to make a great first impression but also the dialogue you have with that consumer needs to be interesting, engaging, and, most importantly incite emotion. You only have a minute (if that) to accomplish this task but, if you can do so, the person you briefly met on a speed date will find his or her way right back to you.</p>First Impressions Are Not Just Important, They Are Vital to Salestag:www.dealerelite.net,2020-09-09:5283893:BlogPost:13531392020-09-09T13:31:50.000ZHeather MacKinnonhttps://www.dealerelite.net/profile/HeatherMacKinnon
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/7875332296?profile=original" rel="noopener" target="_blank"><img class="align-right" src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/7875332296?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="380"></img></a> Anyone in retail car sales learned early on that you can’t judge a book by its cover. Most everyone has at least one story in which they did and lost a sale. If you look, many of today’s millionaires don’t dress like millionaires. Just take a look at Mark Zuckerberg who sports a t-shirt and jeans daily. That being said, in today’s digital world, first…</p>
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/7875332296?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/7875332296?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="380" class="align-right"/></a>Anyone in retail car sales learned early on that you can’t judge a book by its cover. Most everyone has at least one story in which they did and lost a sale. If you look, many of today’s millionaires don’t dress like millionaires. Just take a look at Mark Zuckerberg who sports a t-shirt and jeans daily. That being said, in today’s digital world, first impressions matter to consumers. There is no face-to-face interaction in which people would normally have an opportunity to learn about and become interested in a person or business. First impressions matter in our digital world. Imagine receiving an e-mail from a business filled with typos and grammar mistakes. That would probably make the recipient less likely to be impressed and want to continue engaging your company.</p>
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<p><strong>What about your dealership? </strong></p>
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<p>Dealerships can easily spend thousands of dollars (or even tens of thousands) on pay-per-click, display, and retargeting ads. In addition, they can spend upwards of $30 per lead from third-party lead providers along with the thousands that they pay to have their inventory listed on car shopping portals. Why? Because they simply want the OPPORTUNITY to sell that car shopper a vehicle. Say that they are successful in receiving that lead…</p>
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<p><strong>Then what happens?</strong></p>
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<p>In many cases, if the dealership is lucky, they may see a potential customer attracted to and engaging with the many calls-to-action (CTA) that the dealer has on their website like “Get Your ePrice,” or “Contact Us” form. When the potential customer does, in many cases they first receive a canned autoresponder (which a customer can tell is exactly what it is) followed by another canned communication essentially telling the customer that someone will contact them. What many dealerships fail to do is fulfill the promise that the CTA told them they would. Namely, provide information. That’s kind of like telling someone to call you then never answering your phone.</p>
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<p>The process that dealers have been using hasn’t changed in decades. The reason? More customers are shopping online than ever before, and dealers simply cannot keep up with the volume. This is exactly why CRMs installed canned templates and scheduled “to-do” lists for salespeople or BDC agents. Why do you think BDCs exist? Because the volume of online communications has exponentially increased!</p>
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<p><strong>So, what’s the problem?</strong></p>
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<p>You know those phone trees that many companies have? Customers don’t want to press 1 to get X, 2 to get Y, etc. Many times, even pressing those leads to a secondary phone tree. This simply frustrates people and can easily make them choose another dealership. In <a href="https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/marketing-resources/micro-moments/five-auto-shopping-moments-every-brand-must-own/">Google’s report</a> “The 5 Auto Shopping Moments Every Brand Must Own,” how a dealership initially responds to a customer affects the last three of the five – Can I afford it? Where Should I Buy It? And Am I getting a Deal? Let’s break that down.</p>
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<ol>
<li>Can I Afford It? – The whole reason a customer contacts a dealership online is to find out whether they can afford it. They’ve already done the first two steps (Which car is best? And Is it right more me.” These are low funnel shoppers ready to buy a car. They are simply trying to get answers to the last three moments.</li>
<li>Where Should I Buy It? – We all know that the world of auto sales is hyper-competitive. Some consumers may be receiving communications from multiple dealerships. And many of those responses look pretty much the same. This isn’t going to endear any consumer to choose dealership X over dealership Y.</li>
<li>Am I Getting a Deal? – Now we go back to the phone tree. This is what the customer is trying to decide but many dealerships don’t provide that information. All they do is make the customer jump through hoops and create friction in a relationship that hasn’t even started.</li>
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<p>Say hello to Quotible. We understand the importance of satisfying the personalized responses that customers desire. Want to maximize your marketing, connect with more customers and increase sales? At Quotible, we have created the most powerful lead response and communication platform in the automotive industry!</p>
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<p>Dealers that use Quotible communicate with their leads through personalized interactive quotes that seamlessly integrate with their existing CRM. Dealerships that use Quotible can provide their prospects with all of the information the customer needs to make a buying decision including the abilities to:</p>
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<ul>
<li>Calculate Cash, Finance & Lease options</li>
<li>Learn about the latest manufacturer incentives</li>
<li>View Taxes & Fees </li>
<li>Estimate their trade-in value</li>
<li>View 360-Walkaround videos </li>
<li>Learn about their salesperson</li>
<li>Book their test drive</li>
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<p>Quotible replaces the canned and unengaging responses being sent to prospects through the dealership’s CRM and replaces them with <a href="https://quotible.com/#tour">powerful and interactive quotes</a> and more options that are sent to the customer through both e-mail and text. Dealerships that use Quotible are seeing on average 88 percent of their responses being engaged with by those prospects within 4 minutes of the initial communication!</p>
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<p>To learn more how to make a great first impression, increase appointments, see the customer choosing your dealership over your competition and sell more cars, <a href="https://quotible.com/request-demo/">contact us today</a> and we’ll show you how to stop wasting time following up with customers who have moved on and turn your advertising spend into one that exponentially increases sales!</p>